When we talk about the money that the “average” American worker makes, we are usually referencing a “median” or “mean” income statistic.
While this number can be useful in many different contexts, it can also be extremely limiting. The reality is that there’s a very wide range of incomes out there, even within a particular type of industry. Some people can barely make ends meet, and others make millions of dollars more.
To view income distribution through a wider lens, data visualization expert Nathan Yau has created an interactive chart that breaks down millions of data points into just 50 dots per industry. The dots are visualized on a scale from $0 to $200k+ and binned in $5,000 increments. Data is also adjusted for inflation.
Income Distribution by Industry in 1960
Here’s a snapshot showing what income distribution looked like 57 years ago for a variety of broad industries:
Source: http://www.visualcapitalist.com/shifting-income-distribution-american-jobs/
